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The EU member states, including Latvia, make annual calculations of the funding for the official development assistance (ODA) provided by using the Guidelines of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD/DAC). ODA is the funding provided by a country for the development of other countries as percentage of this country's GNP level.
In line with these Guidelines, Latvia in 2005 allocated 0.07% of its GNP, or approximately LVL 5.9 million, for development cooperation. Of this funding, 91% represented payments to international organisations and their programmes, e.g. the EU, UN agencies, the International Migration Organization, the International Monetary Fund.
Until 2005, Latvia's activities related to development cooperation have been based mainly on reactions to specific situations or events (ad hoc). In 2005, for the first time a specific amount of budget was allocated for planned bilateral assistance. Several technical assistance projects in Latvia's priority countries – Moldova and Georgia – in sectors such as border guard, customs, administration of penitentiary institutions, co-ordination of EU issues, establishment of local government system, etc. were implemented.
In 2006, Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the first Call for project proposals for implementation development cooperation projects. Projects in areas like development of civil society, enable municipality cooperation, development of audiovisual sector, sustainable economic growth were implemented.
Latvia's to-date financial support to development cooperation
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|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
|
ODA/ GNP |
0.019% |
0.01% |
0.008% |
0.06% |
0,07% |
0,06% |
0,06% |
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Total (LVL) |
1,098,764 |
554,612.99 |
514,968.62 |
4,839,579.07 |
5,739,285 |
6,662,613 |
8 153 888 |
In view of Latvia's commitment, as well as its economic growth and successful experience in reform implementation, Latvia plans to increase the development cooperation budget for the implementation of planned bilateral and trilateral projects in less developed countries by 2010. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has developed the Conception for Increasing State Budget Financing for Implementation of the Development Cooperation Policy of the Republic of Latvia 2006-2010, which provides annual increase in Latvian funding to reach 0.1% of GNP by 2010.
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